Blackhawk

“If you had the chance to buy an Ultralight Jet type aircraft, what would your preferred seating arrangement be; (1) side by side seating (with a lower performance); or (2) tandem seating (with a higher performance)" Blackhawk

Unfortunately no-one can control the weather but apart from the cold wind we did have perfect blue skies. I found the day dissapointing with, once again the high rollers blocking nearly all the runway from the view of spectators where most of the action would be seen. I've attended all the Wide Bay Airshow's and nearly all the years at Old Station and as far as spectator involvement and enjoyment with the events and exhibits, Old Station wins hands down, and I know the June long weekend 2010 will be another success for them. If the Wide Bay Airshow organisers want a truly successful airshow they will have to cater for the masses not the priveleged few. It will take a lot of convincing for me to attend another one at Bundaberg if the layout stay's the same as this last effort. And the parking, well, if they put it at Burnett Heads, look at the extra exercise we'll all get.

Hi BLA82, Hope you dodn't mind, I cleaned up your photos a bit to make them not as dark.

The two seat aircraft in the photo was designed and built here (not in the US) in Aus by "Skywise Aviation" who bought the rights and equipment of the single seater from the US. It has flown, with about 5 hours on it by a test pilot and the previous owner in Victoria who renamed it the "Kingfisher". It was noted, as you have, that the tail feathers needed to be larger than the original single seat ones that were on it. The plane was pulled down to have this done but I am guessing it got beyond the previous owners expertise and consequently sat dorment for many years. It was registered VH and that registration was only cancelled in Febuary this year. This would make an ideal LSA aircraft.

Sadler Vampire Here's the original Australian 2 seat Vampire which was built before Ken Garland become involved in the single seater. If anyones interested, it's for sale. Graeme

Talking to the organisers of the Old Station Fly-in at the weekend and unfortunately it has been cancelled again for this year. The Roulettes; the main draw card to the event said they could only send one aircraft this year because of funding cuts. A bit hard to do formation aerobatics with one plane. There were also other factors that led to the cancellation. Very disappointing news.

Hi Ian, I know exactly what you are talking about and I too have seen many good deigned engines over the past 10 years dissappear into oblivion. Not only unusual designs but many engines based on conventional engine thinking. Every time I've searched for an engine to use and find one that will fulfill our needs, it fails to materialise and the search then starts again. This is the sole reason for us to get involved in developing these engines. We have collaberated with a number of engineers to bring this concept forward and hope we will not fall into the same obis as the others. All original designs may have their failings initally but subsequent improvements by other imaginative thinkers can turn an average idea into an excellent one. It wouldn't matter if you designed the most perfect of whatever, there would always be those that will ridicule and nock the whatever, for the sake of seeing their name in print or to voice their opinion, when in fact they haven't got a clue what their talking about. These people are usually the ones who eat three or more serves at a smorgasbord then complain the meal was rubbish. And I know you are not one of these type of people, so your comments are always taken onboard. At least we are prepaired to put our necks on the chopping block no matter what the end results may bring. Greame

What a well worded and true discription. I had these types before that are happy to criticise beyond belief and never achieve anything in their lifetime for themselves. I wonder what comments he would have made if he was around with the Wright Bros. Graeme

Geoff, The photo is the prototype petrol version, not a diesel. We've decided to develope the diesel version instead of the Petrol. Flying "out in the wind"................ YES! Graeme

The engine doesn't have a crank shaft, the pistons are driven by a cam. Hence the term Rotary. They are air cooled, but that might change before production and we can easily add valves for a 4 stroke configuration because of the simple way the engine is designed. They are all common rail EFI. Graeme

We'll definately look into that. Graeme

Yes, it's a MULTI fuel engine. I don't know about Tawney Port though. Graeme

Hi Lyle, I thought you said you were going to to buy a Jabaru. There's no gearbox or radiator and at the moment I can't give you any information on the exhaust weight. Graeme

That's all the infromation we are releasing at the moment so we can guage the vialability for production. Especially in this current economical climate. Our web site was corrupted with MALWARE and is being rebuilt so I will let you know when it is back up and running. Graeme

In late 2009 we will begin production of three different size, High Torque Multi-fuel Radial Piston engines which will be Air-cooled and Fuel Injected. There are very few engine choices in the 65HP to 120HP range at the moment and Diesel engines in particular, are virtually non existent for Recreational Aviation use. We have Patents for the engines already in place for some countries with more to be submitted in early 2009 to give us full world wide protection. Below are the specifications for the three engine designs (all Diesel, but can be configured to run on UL petrol at slightly less HP). They will have inbuilt gear ratios and drive configurations. All engines have a maximum 3000rpm and are designed to have the following drive options; (1) Direct drive (for fixed wing and Gyro's) for all three capacity engines (2) Direct drive with counter rotating shafts (for helicopters, fixed wing and Gyro's) for all three capacity engines. (3) Direct drive with 500rpm on front output of engine and 3000rpm on the rear (for Helicopters only) for the 1600cc and 2000cc engines. The specifications are as follows; CAPICITY ............HORSEPOWER.............. DIAMETER ............WEIGHT 1200cc .....................70HP ............................510mm ................<50kg 1600cc .....................95HP ............................610mm ................<65kg 2000cc .....................120HP ..........................710mm .................<80kg Production cost estimates put these engines at around 15 to 20% less than currently available petrol engines (Rotax in particular) of similar horsepower and considering a diesel has 26% more power than a petrol engine of the same displacement, this makes our Radial Piston Diesel a very viable alternative. We are looking for 'serious' comments from members regarding these engines. We will be relying on your feedback so that we can determine the viability for us to proceed with the production and general consensus that they will be readily accepted throughout the aviation community. I have attached a photo of the Petrol version proof of concept prototype engine. Looking forward to your comments. Regards Graeme

Interested to know if anyone here is tinkering with 1 or 2 seat VTOL-PAV. Surely with our aussie 'can do' attitude there must be ideas floating around that collectively would get us up on the world leader platform. The American's have been trying for decades without much success; so if anyone is interested, lets get something started. Blackhawk

Sucked in! You must admit it's a great fake. Blackhawk.

This would have to be the most skilled pilot on the planet, and the luckiest. http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/08102703.html Blackhawk

Hi Farri, (Frank) I would like to thank you for the information on Bill Starke and his Sea Eagle amphibian. I contacted his wife and had long discussions with her and I am pleased to tell you we now have the design and manufacturing rights to Bills Sea Eagle and we intend to put it into production as a kit. Even though bill flew the Sea Eagle before he passed away, he never got to see it progress to the next step. Our plan is to take his dream to the next step and start production. Bill's wife, Rose will not take part in any of the production, but will benifit from royalties with thesale of the kits. She is very keen to see Bill's ultimate dream take flight, hopefully across the world. I've attached some photo's of the Sea Eagle to show the members what Bill had achieved, as there were very few details about it.

This would have to be the closest thing to flying like Bird! BBC NEWS | UK | Pilot completes jetpack challenge Graeme

Very nice amphibian. At that price with shipping and GST it would put it up around the AU$160000 mark. OUCH! They either want to make a quick fortune or go to the wall very quickly. It would be out of the reach for the large majority of pilots. Graeme